OT Video playback at home

willlisub wrote on 11/11/2008, 9:35 AM
For those storing video and photo's on you home server/computer (as opposed to using a service on the internet or just a bunch of DVD's), I'd be interested in hearing some of the your experiences.

1. What format(s) are you saving (archiving) your video for viewing. I'm referring to what you wife or children might view, as opposed to your original files that you edit.

2. Are you using markers or chapters for viewing?

3. What type of structure (database, html, or just folder layout) are you using for your family to list and find the video?

4. What inexpensive software or utilities do you find helpful.

Comments

richard-courtney wrote on 11/11/2008, 2:10 PM
Even with a media pc we still store offsite on DVD rom in the bank vault.
Our video is in transport stream TS files that we generated using VLC from
videolan.org. Photos are PNG.

Filenames and timestamps are stored using MySQL.

Gimp (I hate the name but love the software) for stills.

I am hoping as internet speed goes up for the $ we can use video conferencing
for get-togethers and TS seems to be a good storage as there are many set top
players and ATSC devices that can ingest TS streams over IP.
psg wrote on 11/11/2008, 7:49 PM
I am using a Netgear ReadyNAS 1.5TB network attached storage device (configured as RAID 5) to store my music (ripped from CDs iin FLAC format), pictures (JPEGs archived from the cameras and edited JPEGs).

My videos are stored on the NAS as ISO DVD images (I leave the raw video archived on my DV and HDV tapes). My HDV videos are stored in .MT2 format after edits.

I use a Mediagate 350HD media player networked to NAS for streaming video to my HDTV for viewing. It will play the ISO DVD images just like a DVD with menus. The .MT2 HDV files stream as 1080i video through component inputs on the Mediagate.

I just use a folder layout organized by year for videos with descriptive file names. The mediagate has a pretty rudimentary user interface showing the folder/file structure on the NAS, but it works.
willlisub wrote on 11/13/2008, 3:38 AM
PSG.....
"I use a Mediagate 350HD media player networked to NAS for streaming video to my HDTV for viewing. It will play the ISO DVD images just like a DVD with menus. The .MT2 HDV files stream as 1080i video through component inputs on the Mediagate."

I'm assuming you play back your HD video as MT2 files, but don't have playback capabilities for the ISO DVD for HD.

I have a computer/server near our 46" 1080P Sony. I have all my composite and DV video stored as DV and the HDV as MT2 files. I also have everything saved as WMV files (both SD and HD) with Chapter marks so I can find stuff. I generally use the DV or HDV for editing but the WMV files for viewing or showing others.

I'm toying with building an HTML layout and converting everything to Flash to make it easier for others to find an view video. Not sure that's the way to go, but thinking about it.

Picasa V3, will now add video to the database. However, it doesn't seem to recognize the MT2 files. I only spent about 5 minutes playing with it, so can't really comment on it. However, I use it for my photo's, so I'm guess it will get used some way with the video's.

Anyway, I'm still looking at ways to keep track and find all my video'ss as I get older and my brain seems to be losing a few memory cells. Too bad I can't add a few gigs of $50 ram to me brain.